“Pandora’s Box.” It’s an expression we’ve all heard before. When it comes to the idiom, it usually means starting something that’ll cause trouble. For example: “The parents were afraid of opening Pandora’s Box by buying their daughter a car.” The phrase is used a lot, and it was even the title of a box-set music collection from my dad’s favorite band, Aerosmith, that I fondly remember from my childhood.
But what about the actual Greek myth? Much of it reads very similarly to the Judeo-Christian story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. Another thing to note is how misogynistic both of these myths are, which explains why feminist re-tellings of Greek myths are so popular right now. Pandora, the world’s first woman, gets blamed for causing all the evil and suffering in the world, just like Eve is blamed for this in the Judeo-Christian myth.
Let’s dig a little deeper into the myth of Pandora’s Box and find out what the story was, where it came from, and some other interesting factoids!
The story: Pandora and The Box
Pandora was the first woman on Earth and was created by the Gods. Each of the Olympian Gods gave her a special gift, so her name in Greek means “the one who bears all gifts.” Specifically, Pandora was created by Zeus to punish mankind, according to the myth, after Prometheus stole the fire.
This is where it gets nasty. According to Hesiod, Pandora’s gifts were beautifully evil. Hephaestus made her from clay, Aphrodite gave her femininity, and Athena taught her crafts. Zeus ordered Herme to teach Pandora to be deceitful, stubborn, and curious (which shows the hatred against women).
Zeus gave Pandora a box or a jar, translated as “pithos” in Greek. He told her the box contained special gifts – but she was never allowed to open it. Hermes took her to Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus, to be his wife. Prometheus warned his bro to never accept anything from the Gods, but he was stunned by Pandora’s beauty, and he accepted her right away.
As for the box … Pandora tried to tame her curiosity, but she couldn’t help herself. She eventually opened the box/jar, and all the illness, suffering, and hardship of the world came flying out. She was frightened, and she closed the box as fast as possible. In some versions of the myth, one of the only things that gets locked inside the box is Hope. Hope stays inside because this was Zeus’ will. He wanted people to suffer to learn they shouldn’t disobey Olympus.
The myth of Pandora’s box has fascinated people forever, despite how problematic it is to us today. The main purpose and moral of the story is to explain why evil and suffering exist in the world. Obviously, it’s very similar to the story of the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve disobey God, eat the forbidden fruit, and it leads to The Fall.
Where Does the Story Come From?
The story of Pandora’s Box was first recorded in a set of epic poems by Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days, which were written in the 7th century BCE. But was it a box or a jar? The word that was translated as “box” was actually a large jar or container (pithos) in Greek. It was mistranslated in the Middle Ages, which is why we started calling it Pandora’s Box.
Pithoi in Greece were used for the storage of wine, oil, grain, etc., or in a ritual way, as a container for a human body for burying. Some scholars see a close analogy between Pandora, who was made from clay, and the clay pithos that dispensed all the evils of the world.
The mistranslation of pithos probably happened when the 16th-century humanist, Erasmus, changed the Greek pithos to pryxis, meaning “box.”
It appeared in Erasmus’ collection of proverbs, Adagia (1508). In this version, the box is opened by Epimetheus, whose name means “afterthought.”
What’s the Meaning Behind the Myth?
The meaning behind the Pandora’s Box myth is full of hatred towards women. Pandora is said to represent the beautiful figure of dread, something that men can find no remedy for. She is the quintessential woman who was created to deceive men, entice them with her beauty and sexuality, and introduce falsehood to the world.
Her task was to unleash all the evils into the world while trapping hope. In this very nasty interpretation, Pandora is a trick gift bestowed upon men from the gods and punishment for Prometheus’ stealing of fire.
Hesoid’s story of Pandora makes sense when you consider the patriarchal nature of archaic Greek ideas of sexuality and economics. Hesiod didn’t invent the story, but he adapted it to show that Zeus was the supreme ruler who influenced the world and caused misery. Like the Garden of Eden story, the Pandora myth also shows human’s descent from a state of bliss and a carefree existence.
That’s a Wrap!
So there you have it: the story of Pandora’s Box. After reading about a myth like this, it makes sense to me why feminist retellings have become so popular. The Greeks weren’t the only ones to blame women for the ills of the world, but the nitty-gritty details of the Pandora myth are pretty bad.
Leave a comment or drop us a line if you like what you read, and let us know anything you’d like us to cover on our journey through Greek myth. Some stories we plan on doing soon are the Greek origins of the universe, great poems inspired by Greek mythology, and something on Thanatos, the Greek god of Death. Until next time, thanks for reading!
Sources/Learn more:
The View from Parnassus 